


Hello Again

by Wr1t3myWr0ngs



Series: Remembering Yesterday's Tomorrow (In the Here and Now) [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Bittersweet, F/M, Hopeful Ending, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:48:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25191190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wr1t3myWr0ngs/pseuds/Wr1t3myWr0ngs
Summary: It's impossible, but when he sees her, he knows. He always knows.
Relationships: CT-7567 | Rex & Ahsoka Tano, CT-7567 | Rex/Ahsoka Tano
Series: Remembering Yesterday's Tomorrow (In the Here and Now) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824871
Comments: 11
Kudos: 159





	Hello Again

The helmet slid from his grip. The sound of its impact echoing off the durasteal walls.

It wasn't possible. And yet there was no mistaking the slope of those montrals, the pattern of white marks -flared wings that had grown wide with her age - that delicately painted her face.

But it wasn't possible. She was a fragment of a future that Rex was half convinced had been a dream, a woman that he had lived his life -what little he had left- with before waking back in his bunk, only a small band of metal to prove that it had in fact happened.

When she had stood, she had stared back at him with a carefully guarded expression, no doubt carefully chosen words that wouldn't betray her inner turmoil on her lips (But Rex could see it, in her eyes, the tension in her back, the drape of her lekku. He had become fluent in the language of Ahsoka Tano, drank it in until it came as naturally as holding a blaster).

Then he had dropped his bucket, and he knew his eyes were wide and that his hands were trembling. If this were a holo, he would have held onto the helmet, kept his cool and skillfully let her know that he knew. That they were both alike in being out of time, her grown and mature, him a too-young-too-old soldier made to fight the same war over again. Maybe he would have walked up and said the code phrase, Fulcrums phrase, loud and clear without a tremble.

But this wasn't a holo, his hands shook and his bucket was on the floor, and his voice had left him, and she was looking at him with concern ~~So was the general, but he wasn't important. Not next to her.~~

"Are you alright, Captain?"

And there was that voice that haunted his dreams for weeks, measured and calm and just like he remembered. He looked a fool - struck dumb by the impossibility of the galaxy - and General Skywalker was trying to get his attention. Was halfway through asking if Rex needed to visit medical when the Captains brain came back online, and the clone took a step forward on unsteady legs and spoke with a voice that was miraculously steady.

"Endor, "

Her brows pinched and she was no longer looking past him but at him, trying to tell what he was doing.

Another step forward, more certain than before.

"Yavin 4,"

Step.

"Alderaan, "

Another step and her eyes go wide, a tenuous hope daring to bloom behind a wall of wariness.

"Hoth, "

One last step and then he is directly in front of her, honey gold to sky blue eyes, and her mask crumbles - anguish, hope, and fear all mixing inelegantly on her beautiful face. But she holds herself still, does not reach out, and it is a heady mix of emotions to be so close and not to touch – to want to feel and to hold and to know that its real, but afraid that it will shatter the spell.

His voice falters, but Rex swallows.

"Lothal."

It leaves his lips like a prayer, spoken between him and some impossible God that has never been kind or generous - ~~not to him or his brothers, never to the clones~~ \- to let this be real.

She responds, his name slipping from her lips with equal reverence, as if he were the impossibility worth difference.

And perhaps it is like a holo, as they fall into each others embrace, holding on to what they can as bittersweet and overwrought tears steal down their cheeks; his helmet discarded and the company of the others forgotten as they drink in the feel of one another.

The sound of the doors sliding shut draws them from each other's arms, and they find the room empty, their general - tactless and occasionally clueless - for once having chosen to ask questions later and gave the two the most precious gift he could: privacy and time.

Both knew it would be short-lived, the war loomed in the corners of even the most private moments, but that would be for later. For now, Rex pulled Ahsoka back into the embrace, content to wait for the problems of the future rather then rush to meet them.


End file.
